Thief: Guide to Camping
Overview This is a beginner's guide to camping notorious monsters. I will explain my opinions on the best ways for someone to camp lower level NMs that they can solo as a Thief. I will only talk about camping NMs that are low levels or can be solo'd by any level Thief. I'm not getting into any of the hardcore NMs that require more people or very specific tactics in order to win. This is meant to get a beginner Thief on the right track to camping NMs that will benefit them, whether it's Bounding Boots (said to be required by all Thieves) or Mary's Horn to make a quick buck. The Job Check out the Thief main page to learn about job abilities and traits and what levels you get them. In my own opinion, and many others, Thief is an ideal job for camping and farming NMs. They have many Abilities and Traits that help them in more ways than another job. The earliest ability to make use of is Sneak Attack so I would not recommend hunting until at least level 15. --Treasure Hunter: Increases drop rate of items. You get the ability first at 15 and at level 45 you get Treasure Hunter. It's possible to raise it to Treasure Hunter 4 by obtaining a level 70 Thief's Knife and Thief Relic Gear. --Flee: Increase your speed to make a quick getaway, or in this case, make it there first. This is learned at level 25. If you get the Rogue's Poulaines, they will increase your Flee time from 30 sec to 45 sec. --Marksmanship: Not all jobs can use ranged weapons and Crossbows make for fast pulls and great bolts at your disposal. A Thief can solo easily with the use of sleep, acid, and bloody bolts. Using Ranger as a Subjob really makes these easier to land. --Steal: Obtained at level 5. Believe it or not, this makes for a faster pull if you are fleeing. I learned that if you are racing to an NM against another player or more, the fastest way to get it is to run up to the NM, while using flee, and spam Steal until it comes out. I've had times that I've shot arrows at the same time another player casted a spell and the monster wasn't claimed right away and made for a claiming battle. I lost. --Sneak Attack: Same as treasure Hunter, you get this at level 15. If you have the time and can manage to get behind an enemy (assuming it wont aggro you) this makes for a nice amount of damage to dish out at the start. Unfortunately, Thiefs don't make the best damage dealers or tanks, so they aren't quite as strong or can take damage as well as other jobs. Now, a subjob is the next thing you have to think about. I would only put two jobs on the table to think about, Ranger and Ninja. --Ranger: Ranger is my ideal sub job, giving me the best ability of all for camping, Widescan. This allows you to see the monsters within a certain radius around you. Making locating the NM when he pops, a lot easier. Now, Beastmaster can use Widescan also but I think Ranger is better because of the higher Ranged Accuracy where the Crossbow Bolts come in handy. --Ninja: Ninja works well when you are facing a tougher enemy. This way you can use your Utsusemi spells, especially Utsusemi: Ichi. Granted, if your starting job is Thief, you won't have access to Ninja until you hit level 30 and even then Utsusemi: Ichi is an expensive spell to buy and hard to obtain by quest. Nonetheless, it's definitely a very helpful job for a Thief. Now, going with Ninja subjob is not suggested unless the enemy requires it. For example, when I faced Skogs Fru, he pops in a very small area and I didn't require Ranger and instead used Ninja to make a hard fight easier. Though the bolts were harder to land without Ranger. The Notorious Monster The process in camping will take a long time. Timed NMs pop automatically after a period of time ranging about 1-2 hrs and some even as long as 24 hrs or even days. Other NMs require you kill a normal monster first. Some just need an item that you trade to a spot that, when selected, will be a '???'. Timed spawns are just that, they will pop in a certain amount of time. Knowing the time it was last killed, will let you know when to expect its spawn rather than checking the widescan every 10 seconds. Those required an item to trade are simple, just trade the item to the '???' and it will spawn right there. There is usually a 15 min or so wait time between trades. The tricky ones are Lottery Spawns. They require that you kill a specific enemy in a specific group of monsters. That is called the Place Holder, or PH. When you kill the PH, and the monster is about to respawn, there is a chance that instead, the NM will spawn in it's place. If not, then you repeat the process. This process usually takes about 1-2 hours on average. Each NM is different and research is required to find out which monster is the PH and where it can spawn. The Hunt Once you get your information down, you want to choose your jobs and head out with any necessities you need. When in the area, find a spot that's safe and most center in the NMs spawn range. That way, you will be closest no matter where it spawns. If it's a Lottery Spawn, get the PH, and wait in position. After you kill the PH, watch the clock for the respawn time which will either respawn the PH or the NM. Most monsters have a 5 min respawn time and if you have a 5 min ability (like Hide) use that right after the PH's death and watch the cool down timer. Once the NM pops, select Track on the Widescan, use Flee and once the NM is on your radar, you know it's within range for a Ranged Attack. If you happen to be racing another player, run up to the NM and spam your steal macro until you use it and claim it. At that point, follow whatever strategy you need and beat the hell out of the NM. Always make sure you can solo the NM before attempting to camp it. If you have any questions, you can send me a message, discuss it on the discussion page, or if you are on the Asura Server, send me a /tell to Cierra or Lacard and I will help you if I can. Good luck and happy hunting.